2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix
Race 4 of 23 in the 2022 Formula One World Championship ← Previous race Next race →
Layout of the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari
Race details
Date	24 April 2022
Official name	Formula 1 Rolex Gran Premio del Made in Italy e dell'Emilia-Romagna 2022
Location	Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari Imola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	4.909 km (3.050 miles)
Distance	63 laps, 309.049 km (192.034 miles)
Pole position
Driver	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-RBPT
Time	1:27.999
Grid positions set by results of sprint

The 2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Rolex Gran Premio del Made in Italy e dell'Emilia-Romagna 2022) is an upcoming Formula One motor race taking place on 24 April 2022 at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy. This is the first Grand Prix weekend of the 2022 season to utilize the sprint format.

Background

Track changes

The Drs detection point was moved further back before turn 17.

Entrants

See also: 2022 Formula One World Championship § Entries

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.

Tyre choices

Further information: Formula One tyres

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C2, C3, and C4 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event.

Practice

There are two practice sessions, both lasting one hour. The first practice session started at 13:30 local time (UTC+02:00) on Friday the 22 of April. The second practice session is set to begin at 12:30 local time on the 23 of April.

The first practice session ended with Charles Leclerc quickest ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr. and Max Verstappen. The session was red flagged twice, due to the wet conditions causing spins at turn twelve by Lando Norris and later Valtteri Bottas.

Qualifying

The first qualifying (Q1) session was red flagged with 12 minutes left after Alexander Albon's brakes caught fire at turn 14, spewing debris all over the track. Only ten drivers had set times before the red flag causing the track to become greatly congested. The drivers eliminated were Albon, his Williams teammate Nicholas Latifi, the two Alpha Tauri drivers of Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly, and Esteban Ocon in the Alpine. The two Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were almost eliminated in the session, leaving the historically dominant team in a state of alarm. The second part of qualifying (Q2) was once again red flagged after Sainz spun at turn 18 and collided with the outside barrier, DNFing him from the session. Fortunately for the Ferrari driver, his current time was fast enough for him to advance to Q3. However, he would not be able to participate in the session and will start the race in 10th place. Those eliminated were Lance Stroll, Zhou Guanyu, Mick Schumacher, and notably the two Mercedes drivers. This was the first time since the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix that Mercedes had failed to send a car to the final part of qualifying. Q3 was even more chaotic than the first two. there were 3 more red flags, bringing the total in qualifying to 5. First was Kevin Magnussen spinning at turn 12, one of many drivers having issues at that part of the track. The second red flag in the session was called when Bottas' Alfa Romeo had an issue causing him to pull off the side of the track at turn 16, with only 3 minutes left in the session. Verstappen, who was on pace to set the fastest lap, had to slow down due to this but was still able to beat Leclerc's time by .7 seconds. Once more, drivers were in a frenzy to get one more chance to improve their lap time. However, with less than a minute to go, Lando Norris spun out at the nefarious turn 12. This caused the session to end prematurely, leaving the drivers with no more chances to improve their lap times.

Max Verstappen claimed a much-needed pole position, giving him an opportunity to claw back some points on the championship leader, Charles Leclerc, who qualified in second. Lando Norris in the McLaren rounds out the top three and the Haas of Kevin Magnussen qualified in a spectacular fourth place after the team didn't start higher than 14th the year prior. Verstappen's teammate Sergio Pérez only managed seventh just behind Fernando Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo, with Bottas, Sebastian Vettel, and Sainz occupying the tail end of the top ten.

Qualifying classification

Pos.	No.	Driver	Constructor	Qualifying times			Sprint grid
				Q1	Q2	Q3
1	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-RBPT	1:19.295	1:18.793	1:27.999	1
2	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:18.796	1:19.584	1:28.778	2
3	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	1:20.168	1:19.294	1:29.131	3
4	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1:20.147	1:19.902	1:29.164	4
5	14	Fernando Alonso	Alpine-Renault	1:20.198	1:19.595	1:29.202	5
6	3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren-Mercedes	1:19.980	1:20.031	1:29.742	6
7	11	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull Racing-RBPT	1:19.773	1:19.296	1:29.808	7
8	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1:20.419	1:20.192	1:30.439	8
9	5	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	1:20.364	1:19.957	1:31.062	9
10	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	1:19.305	1:18.990	No time	10
11	63	George Russell	Mercedes	1:20.383	1:20.757	N/A	11
12	47	Mick Schumacher	Haas-Ferrari	1:20.422	1:20.916	N/A	12
13	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:20.470	1:21.138	N/A	13
14	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	1:19.730	1:21.434	N/A	14
15	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes	1:20.342	1:28.119	N/A	15
16	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-RBPT	1:20.474	N/A	N/A	16
17	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri-RBPT	1:20.732	N/A	N/A	17
18	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams-Mercedes	1:21.971	N/A	N/A	18
19	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	1:22.338	N/A	N/A	19
107% time: 1:24.311
—	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	No time	N/A	N/A	201
Source:

Notes

• ^1 – Alexander Albon failed to set a time during qualifying, but he was permitted to race in the sprint at the stewards' discretion.